19th Diamond Mineral Water Hockey Festival: Presence of Umpire Ayanne McLean boosted officiating, competitiveness

– GHB President Phillip Fernandes

Hockey fans flocked the National Gymnasium on Sunday, December 2nd, as the much-anticipated 19th Diamond Mineral Water Festival culminated under lights.
QPCC Men secured championship status, along with Hikers Old Boys Over 45, Women George United, and QPCC Men’s Over 35, as each rose to the challenge and showed determination to clinch their respective championships.
President of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB), Phillip Fernandes, has deemed the tournament a success. In an exclusive chat with Guyana Times Sport, Fernandes credited the positive nature of competition over the years with continuously attracting international teams.

“This is our 19th edition, and we’ve always had foreign teams coming, and that is not always easy to attract foreign teams. I think the product that we put out is good. Teams that come are always interested in coming back, and that shows today that, after 19 years, we can still have teams from Canada, we can still have several teams from Trinidad coming in, and all having good competition and having a good time in the place,” Fernandes has said.
Speaking on the strategy of having local teams compete against international teams in order to increase their development and growth,
Fernades said, “Well, to make our local athletes better, we have to expose them to higher levels of competition. So, the best in Guyana don’t have anyone to compete against, so, when we bring in teams like this, it gives them that edge; it gives them that opportunity to retest their skills, to check where they’re doing well (and) where they need to improve. And, in fact, this tournament does just that. They come in, there’s a high level of competition, and throughout the tournament, you can see the quality of play rising in teams already.

“This is the only tournament throughout the year that we get this at the local side, and so it’s very important and critical, I think, for our development over the years.”
Asked what the presence of Trinidadian Umpire Ayanne McLean may have done for the Festival, Fernandes indicated that the high level of officiating had increased the level of play and officiating throughout the games.
“Yeah, that’s also very important. Our athletes can’t get better in isolation. Exactly how to play the game is dictated also by the officiating, so when you have really quality umpires like Ayana McLean, who is a world level: she’s done Olympics, she’s done World Cups; when people like her come here, it also educates everybody to the point where the whole game rises. The standard of play and the officiating raises quite a bit,” Fernandes explained.
This tournament was made possible by sponsorship from Demerara Distillers Limited, ANSA McAL, ExxonMobil, Republic Bank, Bounty Supermarkets, Sterling Products Ltd; Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport, and the National Sports Commission.